


Good Little Boy

by Ferith12



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Child Abuse, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, House Elves, House elf abuse, which should really be a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 13:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16535654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ferith12/pseuds/Ferith12
Summary: "Sirius Black came into to the world screaming, and that's how he'll leave it, probably.  That or laughing.Regulus must have come into the world screaming too, though he finds that harder to imagine.  But even if he did, he must have shut up the moment he saw his mother glaring at him."A character study of Regulus Black in his childhood with a bit of Sirius thrown in for contrast.





	Good Little Boy

Sirius Black came into to the world screaming, and that's how he'll leave it, probably.  That or laughing.

Regulus must have come into the world screaming too, though he finds that harder to imagine.  But even if he did, he must have shut up the moment he saw his mother glaring at him.

Regulus was a quiet baby, by all accounts.  He slept at night and never screamed and when he cried to let the house elves know he needed his diaper changed or was hungry he cried politely.

Regulus was a quiet child.  Obedient.  Good.  He never complained and never, ever talked back.  It was all terribly un-Black-like.   It made him his parents' favorite, and it made his parents hate him.

Regulus didn't question things as a child.  He wished to be loved.  He loved.  He assumed that those around him loved him, and he was, of course correct.  Sirius loved him, as the only good thing in that house, as his only friend against a world of enemies, even if he also hurt him as the only thing he had the power to hurt, as his enemy in the competition of their parents' orchestration.  Regulus's mother loved him, in that way that a woman loved her pet or possession, as a product of herself that she prided herself on.  His father loved him as a man loves a promising investment.  And of course Kreacher loved him.   Kreacher loved his littlest master, in the way that was unconditional.  The way that filled his old gnarled, loyal, dark heart with awe.  The way that he had once loved Regulus's mother, when she was young and wide-eyed and scared.  The way that kept him loving her, kept him eagerly obedient, even when she was ordering him to hurt her little boy.  

Neither of the Black boys cried out when they were punished, but afterwards Sirius went back to screaming, while Regulus went quietly down into Kreacher's cupboard and let Kreacher hold him, safe and warm, as he cried and cried.  And that was the reward Regulus received for not asking too much of love.

Sirius looked around at his world, at his family, at those who hurt him, and saw that it was wrong.  Sirius looked around him and he demanded better.  But Regulus demanded nothing.  He simply took his world as it was.  He obeyed and he believed, and if his mother sent him stinging hexes for annoying her, or commanded the house elves to beat him with sticks, then that was justice.  And in-between he snuck into the kitchens and let Kreacher and Nilly and the rest of them fill him with sweets and fuss over the bruises they had been commanded to give him.


End file.
